Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 330 Money comes from the wind

Carlo, who had not been relaxing in the palace for long, soon felt that money was blowing in like the wind.

On January 1886, 1, Butler Loren found Carlo with an excited look on his face and reported to him a good news, which was the development of the Spanish royal family's wine industry.

To be precise, it is not just the development of the Spanish royal family's wine industry, but the development of the entire Spanish wine industry.

What is the good news?
In the last year, 1885, Spanish wine exports of all brands combined exceeded 100 million tons.

How exaggerated is the concept of 100 million tons of wine? The current European standard for a bottle of wine is 750 ml, and one ton of wine can hold about 1333 bottles of wine.

One million tons of wine is equivalent to 100 billion bottles of wine. Considering Spain's population of just over 13.33 million, each Spaniard would drink more than 2 bottles of exported wine each year.

Of course, selling wine isn't actually that profitable.

Even though Spain sold 13 billion bottles of wine, in fact, the vast majority of these wines are mid- and low-end products, especially low-end products.

Although wine is very popular throughout Europe, the majority of wine drinkers are ordinary people in Europe. Ordinary people cannot afford expensive wine, which leads to a relatively low average price per bottle of wine, and the cost is naturally not much higher.

Currently, the Spanish royal family mainly operates two brands of wine. The wines of the Royal Winery are mainly high-end, and a bottle of ordinary edition wine of the same year will sell for a high price of hundreds of pesetas.

If it is a special edition, such as the collector's edition wine launched by Carlo on the 10th anniversary of his coronation, the price of each bottle is as high as hundreds of pesetas, and there is even a shortage of people.

But it is obvious that such high-priced wine is out of reach for ordinary people.

In addition to the Royal Winery, the royal family also has a brand that focuses on the mid-to-low-end and cost-effective, that is Iberia Manor.

The price of wine produced by Iberia Estate is generally 3-5 pesetas per bottle. If an ordinary person wants to buy such a bottle of wine, he will have to spend about a week's salary.

The wines that can really be sold to ordinary people are the low-end wines launched by other wineries. Some wines are sold not in bottles but in barrels.

The price of such wine is also quite low. On average, each bottle of wine, or every 750 ml of wine, costs less than 1 peseta. At this price, it can be said that everyone in Spain can afford it.

Because low-end wines are cheap, the royal family did not join the market for very low-end wines. This also allowed the Spanish wine industry to develop. Without the competition from royal enterprises, these small-scale wine brands survived relatively well.

Based on Spain's export volume of 13 billion bottles of wine, even if most of them are low-end wines, the export of 13 billion bottles can enable the Spanish wine industry to earn hundreds of millions of pesetas in revenue.

After all, the export price is definitely different from the domestic price. As long as it involves export, transportation, loss and tariffs will increase the cost, which also makes the price of low-end wine much more expensive.

It is worth mentioning that at the time of the Spanish Revolution, in 1868, Spain’s grape exports were actually less than 20 tons.

So the question is, why has Spain's wine exports increased fivefold in the past 10 years?

The main reason for this is that the root knot pest in Europe has led to a decrease in wine production in various countries, resulting in a reduction in the scale of wine exports.

Coincidentally, the country most severely affected by the root knot pest is France, which is most famous for its wine industry at this time.

What's even more coincidental is that the area in France that suffered the most from the root knot pest happened to be Bordeaux, the core area of ​​its wine industry.

In fact, since 1868, France, originally a major wine exporter, has begun to import wine continuously from Spain.

As a major wine exporter, France is actually also a major wine consumer. The status of wine in Europe is like that of liquor in Asia. Not only European men, but also women drink wine.

In addition to promoting the flourishing of Spain's wine industry, France's import of wine from Spain also brought many advanced brewing technologies to the Spanish wine industry.

Originally, Spain was relatively backward in wine brewing technology. Compared with Bordeaux, a famous wine producing region in France, Spain's brewing technology could only be considered mediocre.

After acquiring brewing technology from France, Spain's wine industry has developed rapidly and is sold throughout Europe except France.

During the period when the French wine industry had to be reduced due to insect pests, the Spanish wine industry almost took over most of the market originally occupied by French wine exports.

Because of its relationship with the royal families of several countries and the publicity from newspapers, the Spanish royal family's Royal Winery brand of wine is also popular throughout Europe's aristocratic community, becoming a high-end and well-known red wine second only to some luxury red wine brands.

Low-end wines are even more amazing and have entered thousands of French households.

According to French newspapers, one out of every three bottles of wine consumed by the French is produced in Spain.

You know, France was once the largest wine producer in Europe. The fact that Spanish wines account for one-third of the French wine market is enough to prove how rapidly the Spanish wine industry has developed during this period.

Of course, the wine industry in other countries besides Spain has also seen considerable development during this period.

The most important of these are the wine industries of Italy and Portugal. These three southern European countries are also the few wine exporters that have not been affected by the phylloxera pest.

However, unlike Spanish wine which is sold to France, Portuguese wine is more sold to the UK, while Italian wine is sold to Austria and Germany.

While wine exports exceeded 100 million tons, domestic wine sales in Spain reached an astonishing 27.6 tons, or 3.68 million bottles of wine.

Although 3.68 million bottles of wine may seem like a lot, when spread out to every Spaniard, the actual wine consumption per person per year is less than 16 bottles, or just over one bottle per month on average.

This consumption is still very reasonable. After all, not everyone likes to drink wine, and not everyone can accept the expense of a bottle per month.

Even the cheapest wine, if you drink one bottle a month, would cost more than 10 pesetas a year, which is almost one twentieth of a Spaniard's annual income.

Obviously, not everyone is willing to spend this much money. In addition, many children do not know how to drink, and those who really like wine actually consume more wine.

For Carlo, wine has become a necessity on the table. After dinner, a glass of the best wine produced by the Royal Winery can really make people feel relaxed and happy.

Currently, the most expensive wines among the royal wines are the limited edition wine produced in the year when Carlo became the King of Spain and the collector's edition wine produced for the 10th anniversary of Carlo's coronation.

The price of either of these two wines is over a thousand pesetas, but they are still within the reach of anyone with money.

This kind of precious wine can only be seen at banquets held by the royal family or to reward meritorious officials. If ordinary nobles and capitalists want to drink such limited wine, they can only wait for the annual limited sales activities of the royal winery.

Even though the official selling price of a bottle of wine is less than one thousand pesetas, in fact, if you want to buy such a bottle of wine, you cannot do so without spending more than one thousand or even two thousand pesetas.

Even so, many nobles and capitalists are still flocking to it. They are proud to get a bottle of limited edition wine and use it to entertain the most precious guests.

In fact, such wine is indeed precious.

The royal winery was not very large when Carlo was crowned, so the total wine output that year was actually only a few hundred tons.

Most of the wines were sold as ordinary wines, and only those with particularly good quality, mellow taste and unique flavor were retained to become commemorative wines for Carlo's coronation.

The total number of this batch of commemorative wines is less than 10 bottles, and nearly one-tenth of them have been consumed in the past decade.

Coupled with the increase in vintages, the price of such wines is getting more and more expensive. Currently, the most expensive bottle of coronation commemorative wine has been auctioned for more than 2000 pesetas, which is 10 years' income for an average Spaniard. As for the limited edition wine of the 10th anniversary of the coronation, because it is not too long ago and the production of the Royal Winery has increased, the price is not that expensive.

Currently, the price of a bottle of the 10th anniversary limited edition wine is just over 1000 pesetas, and it is also the main wine used by Spanish nobles to entertain guests.

Of course, Spanish nobles also have their own wineries. As for why they use the limited edition wines of the Royal Winery when entertaining VIPs, firstly, it is to show the preciousness and rarity of the wines, and secondly, it is also a way to please Carlo.

Moreover, unlike the small-scale operations of the noble wineries, Carlo has made huge investments in his own wine industry.

Since Carlo founded the Royal Winery, he not only introduced advanced winemaking technology from France, but also learned how to store wine and select grapes.

It can be said that apart from the difference in taste caused by the origin, there is actually not much difference between the wine produced by Carlo's Royal Winery and the high-end wine produced in the Bordeaux region of France.

This is also the reason why Spanish wines are welcomed by the French people after entering the French market. On the one hand, it is because they really have no choice. The production of French wine has dropped sharply due to the root tuber pest. France mainly imports Spanish wines. Apart from the wines produced in France, the only good choice on the market is Spanish wines.

On the other hand, it is true that Spanish wine is of higher quality and is considered relatively good in the current wine market. The French are also willing to drink Spanish wine.

After hearing the report from Butler Loren, Carlo nodded with a smile and was naturally happy to accept this unexpected wealth.

The royal family's assets are already innumerable, and the huge profits made in the wine industry are just relatively ordinary good news for Carlo.

Even when he learned that the royal family could earn tens of millions of pesetas every year through the export of wine, Carlo just nodded slightly and was not too happy about it.

How outrageous is the speed at which the Spanish royal family is making money right now?

The total assets of the royal family are at least 10 billion pesetas, and many real estates are not even included. The most profitable royal enterprises are the Royal United Bank, Mercedes-Benz Automobile Company and the Royal Grain Company.

These three large companies bring the royal family tens of millions of pesetas of income every year, and the combined income of the three companies has long exceeded 100 million.

If all other industries and assets are taken into account, the Spanish royal family's annual net income has exceeded 2 million pesetas and is heading towards the 3 million pesetas mark.

This is the annual income. How exaggerated is 2 million pesetas? According to the current cost of ironclad ships, which is between 50 and 70 pounds, the royal family's annual income is enough to build more than 10 state-of-the-art ironclad ships.

Even if it is a battleship that will be more expensive in the future, the royal family's income can build five or six ships every year. In other words, if Carlo is willing to invest his income in the construction of the Spanish navy, the Spanish navy will hopefully become a naval power second only to Britain in the next five years.

Of course, building a navy is not as simple as it seems, and Carlo cannot invest all his income into the construction of the navy.

On the one hand, such a large-scale navy construction is likely to arouse the fear of other countries. On the other hand, Spain’s national finances cannot afford such a large navy.

The size of the British Royal Navy is the largest in the world, and the reason is that Britain has colonies all over the world. After two colonial exchanges, Spain's main colonies are basically in Africa, with only one Philippines in Asia and only one Puerto Rico in America.

A small Puerto Rico is certainly not worthy of stationing a large navy. There are no enemies with strong navies around the Philippines, so there is naturally no need to station a large-scale squadron.

Although Africa has several large colonies, it is relatively close to the Spanish mainland and there is no need to station a large-scale naval fleet.

This also led to the Spanish Royal Navy having only one main fleet, which was the Spanish home fleet.

The remaining fleets, including the African Fleet, the Asian Fleet and the American Fleet, were smaller in size than the Home Fleet. Although these fleets were called squadrons, they were actually just small-scale navies at the colonial navy level.

In addition to the growing revenues of the royal family's two wine brands, the revenues of the Royal Grain Company, one of the royal family's three major enterprises, are also growing.

The Royal Grain Company is an official enterprise jointly established by the royal family and the Spanish government. Its purpose is to control Spain's grain imports and exports and use grain imports and exports to balance domestic grain prices in Spain.

Because it controlled the bulk trade in grain, the Royal Grain Company became a giant Spanish company in just a few years, and its revenue naturally increased steadily.

The main reason why the Royal Grain Company's revenue has continued to increase in recent years is Spain's achievements in agricultural product exports, especially vegetable and fruit exports.

When talking about the increase in vegetable and fruit production, we have to mention Spain's agricultural development plan in West Africa.

As mentioned before, the agricultural development of the West African colonies provided a large amount of food to Spain, which not only reduced the price of food in Spain, but also alleviated the pressure on food production caused by the poor land in Spain.

With enough food, some land that is not suitable for producing food can be used to grow vegetables or fruits.

The transformation of land production can make up for farmers' income. After all, if the price of food drops, farmers' income will also drop. The poor land in Spain cannot produce food in the same way as the African land, which can produce three crops a year, but it is very suitable for producing vegetables and fruits.

You should know that in later generations, Spain was originally the largest vegetable exporter in Europe, and its fruit production was also among the highest in Europe.

After part of the local land was converted from producing grain to producing vegetables and fruits, the production of vegetables and fruits in Spain increased significantly.

During this era, European countries mainly focused on producing food, and did not pay much attention to vegetables and fruits. After all, to put it bluntly, the people in the country did not even have enough food, so what was the point of producing vegetables and fruits?

Even though people in later generations pay more attention to balanced nutrition, in fact, grains are still the food that can fill you up, and meat is still the food that is nutritious.

The significant increase in vegetable and fruit production in Spain not only made the Spanish people's tables more abundant, but also effectively increased the scale of Spain's agricultural product exports.

Although the poor are not very interested in vegetables and fruits, the rich are still very interested in these things that can enrich their tables.

The growth in Spain's exports also shows that Europeans are still very welcoming of vegetables and fruits.

It can also be seen from the reports of the Spanish agricultural department that Spain's grain production, vegetable production and fruit production have all increased significantly in the past five years.

1885年西班牙的粮食产量是之前的1880年的1.3倍，蔬菜产量是之前的1.4倍，水果产量是之前的1.6倍，农产品的总产量提升了34%左右。

Not only can the Spaniards buy enough food at a lower price, but they can also make their tables more abundant.

In addition to the increase in grain, vegetable and fruit production, beef and mutton production in 1885 also increased by about 5% compared to five years ago.

With the abundance of food on the table, the physique of the Spanish people has also changed a lot. Compared with the previous generation, the new generation of Spaniards is not only taller, stronger, but also looks healthier.

Walking in the streets of Spain, you no longer see people with pale faces and skinny bodies due to hunger.

Everyone has a healthy skin color, but some people have a little extra fat on their faces and stomachs due to improved living standards.

The increase in total agricultural product output not only represents an increase in the scale of Spain's exports, but also an increase in royal and government revenue.

相较于1880年，1885年的皇家粮食公司每年的纯利润已经突破了5000万比塞塔。按照王室所掌握的60%的股份来算，卡洛每年能够从皇家粮食公司获得大约3000万比塞塔的收入。

This money has already been deducted for tax, which means that the government's income is not only 2000 million pesetas, but also the tens of millions of pesetas paid by the Royal Grain Company to the government in taxes every year.

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(End of this chapter)